The Victory of Death

Campbell writes, "Only birth can conquer death - the birth, not of the old thing again, but of something new. Within the soul, within the body social, there must be - if we are to experience long survival - a continuous 'recurrence of birth' (palingenesia) to nullify the unremitting recurrences of death" (16).

While I understand and agree with what he is saying, he seems to directly contradict himself a few sentences later when he states, "When our day is come for the victory of death, death closes in; there is nothing we can do, except be crucified - and resurrected; dismembered totally, and then reborn" (17). Perhaps he is not contradicting himself necessarily, rather, he is not being specific enough. When we experience the "victory of death" and then are suddenly dismembered and reborn, are we to come back the same, or does the dismemberment result in something new? Does it really matter, or is the resurrection itself the vital step in our transformation to become something entirely different and therefore "heroic?"